Vandalism

[Distorted Stu]

Ever been a victim of vandalism? If so what happened and what did you do?

Suddenly, a rant:
The house i live in now gets a fuck load of it, its unfair as hell. Ive had by fence posts pulled out, gate ripped off its henges, car scratched the works.

About 5 minutes ago i got a brick thrown at my window (ut didnt break) but ive had this ALOT and we suspect its always the same lads. Now, i always run into the dilema of either running after them or just leaving them be. (The police do nothing, they need evidence).

If i chase them and have a word or lay the smackdown, this will make things worse because they no where i live. If i do nothing, i can only hope they get bored because im not chasing them away, ruining their thrill.

Last year i managed to catch the people who threw stone sat my house. I stopped them and told them who live in my home with (two elderly parents, one serverly disabled and both with bad heart conditions). I told them that if they do it again and cause any emotional or pyhical harm i will ...do things to them (yeah we foudn out where they lived as insurance). This stopped that group of Vandals, but im still getting problems.

Its strange aswell because my neighbours recieve the same trouble. I live on a street full of elderly and disabled, most the homes are even bungalos. Makes me sick..

/rant. Discuss?

 

[CactiComplex]

Its strange aswell because my neighbours recieve the same trouble. I live on a street full of elderly and disabled, most the homes are even bungalos. Makes me sick..

My gran has this problem too, and she also lives in an area that the local counsel designated as a kind of elderly/disable specific place. The police have been called out countless times, but they can't do anything. I can't do anything either, because I'm an adult and the vandals legally children and they know it.

I wish they'd install CCTV or have police check up on the place every now and then. My gran has heart problems, and it isn't as if the others in the area are in great shape. Sometimes I don't think they'll be happy until someone's dead as a result of their actions. It isn't as if they don't know, I've been sure to make them aware of it, they just don't care.

 

[FamoFunk]

Bloody hell!

It's really pathetic and sad how they're targeting the edlerly and vunerable, they're a bunch of pussies, who, if up against someone their own age would probaly run a mile. Wankers.

Could you not set up cameras or even try to get footage off your photo digital camera to help the Police. They annoy me to with this "I need evidence" thing, yea let's just wait until the house is burnt down or someone gets killed!!!

 

[Dags90]

Nope, or nothing like that anyway. Live in a nice neighborhood, fairly spread out suburbs. The only real vandalism that happens is the night before Halloween and even that is pretty tame.

 

[RatRace123]

Find out where they live, then use that as leverage against them, if those pricks keep it up chase them down.

It's unlikely they'd do well in a fight if it ever came to that, so you're probably in no danger of that.

 

[Distorted Stu]

Its strange aswell because my neighbours recieve the same trouble. I live on a street full of elderly and disabled, most the homes are even bungalos. Makes me sick..

My gran has this problem too, and she also lives in an area that the local counsel designated as a kind of elderly/disable specific place. The police have been called out countless times, but they can't do anything. I can't do anything either, because I'm an adult and the vandals legally children and they know it.

I wish they'd install CCTV or have police check up on the place every now and then. My gran has heart problems, and it isn't as if the others in the area are in great shape. Sometimes I don't think they'll be happy until someone's dead as a result of their actions. It isn't as if they don't know, I've been sure to make them aware of it, they just don't care.

I sympathise with you. They know that im older and that if i touch them IM the one who gets into bother.

We called the police before because one had vandals guilt and stayed back to apologise but we wouldnt have it unless we had true justice. The police officer even told me "Dont even touch them, youll get the wrong end of the stick everytime"

 

[UmbrellaAssassin]

Put a camera pointing outside to the place where it seems like they're coming from. try to get one of their faces, than go outside, beat the shit out of them, say that if they ever come again you have proof that its them on camera and you will give it to the police.
Than BAM problem over.

 

[CactiComplex]

if i touch them IM the one who gets into bother.

Tell me about it...

It's pushing your luck just verbally warning them off, because they'll report that as threats against them. The thing is, I reckon if these idiots actually did get a broken nose or something for their troubles then they wouldn't come back. For all their big talk, most of them are cowards.

 

[UmbrellaAssassin]

if i touch them IM the one who gets into bother.

Tell me about it...

It's pushing your luck just verbally warning them off, because they'll report that as threats against them. The thing is, I reckon if these idiots actually did get a broken nose or something for their troubles then they wouldn't come back. For all their big talk, most of them are cowards.

And tell them that if they don't stop or try to say something against you doing something to them, that you have proof its them and that vandalism is a big crime and they can get up to 20 years or some crap.
So scare them.
Make them not get the idea to try to tell someone you beat them up.

 

[darth.pixie]

Thankfully, I live in an apartment building. I rarely have trouble and if I do, and call the police, they generally hand out fines like leaflets (bad neighborhood or bad enough to answer every complaint).

On your problem, even a normal webcam would work. Simply set it up to record whatever they do and then present it to the police. If they're kids and they get a fine, their parents will take care of the threat part. Not sure about the prices where you live, but a small camera is rather cheap here.

 

[CactiComplex]

And tell them that if they don't stop or try to say something against you doing something to them, that you have proof its them and that vandalism is a big crime and they can get up to 20 years or some crap.
So scare them.
Make them not get the idea to try to tell someone you beat them up.

That's a good point. I'm not surprised it didn't occur to me before, rationality and coherency aren't my strongest points when I'm trying very hard not to rip someone a new one in a painfully literal sense.

Going by what other posters have said, setting up a camcorder or camera could get actual proof so it wouldn't be an empty threat. And as for doing time... I'm pretty sure any vandal knows you wouldn't get too much time for that, but considering in both cases, particularly the OP's, the victims have been elderly, severely ill, and disabled... Would that count as aggravated assault or some form of harassment? Put the concoction of crimes together and yeah, realistically they could be looking at a long stretch.

I doubt it would work for me without hard evidence though, being a rather small person has some drawbacks when it comes to intimidating people.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I had that happen once to us (my family) several years ago. My parent owns a takeaway shop which we live above it. One morning my parent had saw that the window were all smash (we don't have shut in blind) so it cost quite a bit to get it replace. Anyway we never know who did it but I think the vandal happen in the morning. I guess it fortunate for us that despite the windows were smash nothing was rob on the inside (we take the cash out but there still valuable cutlery ware and stuff inside.

 

[Leg End]

Never really unless you count some punks trashing random shit on our po- wait, that IS vandalism. In which case, yes.

Solution to your dilemma: Buy a gun. Next time they do it, show it to them.
They come back with firepower of their own, light them up.

Though, I don't entirely condone such a solution. But, whatever floats your sub.

OR set up a camera and catch them in the act.

Be sure to get a good shot of the faces.

 

[antidonkey]

Well, technically, the incident I had to deal with was more attempted theft than vandalism. Some punks smashed my truck window to get the stereo. Little did they know that to remove the stereo you had to remove part of the dashboard. All that resulted was a broken window and me being out 90 bucks to replace it. A few weeks later the cops picked up some teenagers thought to be responisble for a bunch of car break ins over the previous few weeks.

Other than that, Every so often someone spray paints the building I work in. It's usually small and easily removed. Not sure if it's wannabe gang members or the hobos. More annoying than anything but I don't have to clean it up so I don't pay too much attention to the matter.